VIEW FROM BRITAIN

The following article appeared in the Times of India today. It had me in splits really, as usually the articles about India authored by foriegn writer's tend to be politically correct and saturated with cultural and spiritual mentions. Rarely have I come across something that is so evident to anyone who might visit India, but is ignored because of the fear of being politically incorrect. I am copy pasting the article from the website. It is a copyrighted material of TOI i assume.... here it is:

The difference between the perceptions of India, of those who live there and those who live in the West is fascinating. Having just spent two months in India one was struck by how much more negative many Indian citizens were about the state of their country than people and the media in England, where i'm from, are. In England, India is seen as a booming giant in terms of economic and geopolitical clout. The poverty suffered by many is reported less in the media than its BPO businesses. India's economic growth pushes its success stories towards the forefront of public consciousness, particularly with the Tatas' takeover of Corus, formerly the state-run British Steel. This summer alone there has been a BBC season of programmes focusing on India and Pakistan and a highly publicised three-month 'India Now' festival in London. This superpower-in-waiting is even seen by some as threatening. Just as America's public fear of losing global economic pre-eminence to the Japanese in the 1980s infected the public discourse, in England now, the fear of job outsourcing to India means that at times India is seen as a danger to the ordinary Brit's economic well-being. I was often faced with the opposite view in India. When one enunciated to a friend this mixture of excitement and fear at India's growth so prevalent in England, he could only reply "Well, it's good you came here to see that this talk is all hype". He then proceeded to tell me in detail the problems faced by India: unmanaged urban growth, deep-rooted corruption, crushing poverty, rampant disease and awful public services. The most troubling aspect he saw were the fissures in Indian society. Similarly, one was struck by the desire of so many in the Indian middle class to leave India. America in particular is seen as a land of milk and honey, where good jobs awaited if only one could get the visa. I met a young boy, less than 10, whose face lit up at the mention of America, despite having never been there. He explained to me how wonderful America is; wide-eyed he told me that even the streets were clean in America! This at a time when many of my English friends feel India is the place to move to!



Now, I remember meeting a Scottish woman once and indulging in an extended chat with her about 'the way things are' and to my surprise, this well travelled lady told me how she found Indian's to be straight forward. Another aquaintance of mine, an Indian was extremely critical. But the lady continued to elaborate as to how the people in Europe tend to be shrewd and go about in circles. The fact is, Indian' aren't much different. Hypocrisy is becoming a national trait, and to a huge extent, people are not very complimentary and don't acknowledge kindness that easily. It was really weird, to stand there and see a person from a first world country, who had travelled extensively, complan about how things were in her land, even as we complained about how things are in ours.

Yet, after that discussion, it wasn't the comparative superiority of the countries that I learnt; it was the fact that in some weird, convoluted way, we all tend to behave in the same way. Sure, the sultural identity changes many things, but grass always seems greener on the other side, and any country can be best enjoyed with the attitude of a traveller, and not a citizen. A citizen expects too much, does too less, and is basically confused as to why he must align his identity with that of his country.

I ask you this, when you were born, a part of you was already wired in your genetic make, a part you gathered, and some you might have just conjured up. But was that the basis on which you were assigned your country of birth? It can be extremely difficult for the young to identify with rigid principles set in stone for someone's convenience. And of course, we aren't submissive. But in all 21 years of my life, despite what I have heard, I have rarely seen people who are comfortable with their place of birth. Those who were, were so involved in their family life, I can assure you that if you airlifted them with their loved ones and dropped them off in Antarctica, they would become patriotic towards that humungous mass of ice and water. Either the people are feircly patriotic, to the point that you wonder if the patriotism is there to simple mask their hatred for the land; or they are feircly unpatriotic. In both cases, they are prejudiced and either defend every even visible gaffe's, or critisize something genuinely good about the place.

The biggest example might be Bollywood. Yes, it pains me to see that this industry that spits out 400 movies a year, is one of India's major mascot for the outside world. For one, business acumen apart, the creative content of all the movies made here might be one fourth of what an artist living in the bacwaters of amazon would manage. While there have been genuine and really thoughtful movies, they are overhyped. Because, you see, when you are accustomed to seeing thrash being spurted out every week, even a remotely genuine work of art baffles you. But for most part, I refrain from watching Bollywood movies, because even a mentally imbalanced individual will find them disturbing. And many Indians, will probably skin me, just for saying this.

You see, even if Bollywood is a huge wad of thrash, its Indian and one must love it! The movies might be terrible, and the actors pure bags of bones and flesh staring at you from the screen, but its Indian! How can you not love something that's Indian???!!!!! Or, even if it's a great movie, it has been done in Hollywood. Oh, and then there's the Indian hypocrisy. Aishwarya Rai or some other female gets the part of a prop in a Z grade Hollywood movie, and suddenly she has a part African part British part I invented this in my teeny weeny head accent, and people are everything but worshipping her!!! And they all do it to represent India to the ignorant 'firangs' [ at the risk of sounding racist, whites are the only alpha race in our species it seems, and every different coloured individual out there seems to try and please this gruop]. I will mention that there ARE and ALWAYS will be exceptions. People who are above all this immature insecurities. Yet, this happens, and its a wee bit pathetic.

We are at a stage where all of us are coping up with the huge cultural shock internet has granted us. And from what I have seen, we all have our silly idiosynchranacies, that are quite similar. [yes, i have been exposed to E! News more than once]. Grass ALWAYS seems to be greener on the other side, and even if we stare at a mirror, we will obsess about the right side is left side difference rather than seeing the bigger picture.

But hopefully, one day people might understand, that at the end of the day, despite the culture, race, caste, gender or country we belong to, we are just that; people.